


The Eyes of the Mighty Caesar Are Shut

by InSearchOfSpace



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: (Ghoul Courier) - Freeform, Dialogue Heavy, Drama, Gen, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 20:19:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12895971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InSearchOfSpace/pseuds/InSearchOfSpace
Summary: Following Mr. House's victory at the second battle of Hoover Dam, the remains of The Fort lay a smouldering ruin, and Caesar's hold on the region is in tatters. House, and his faithful right-hand Courier Six muse on this on their way to dispatch a disgraced high-ranking Frumentarius holding out in the now empty Securitron vault - finding themselves engaged in a peculiar encounter.





	The Eyes of the Mighty Caesar Are Shut

A light rain dripped down from the grey cloudy sky hanging above the ruins of Fortification Hill. The metal gates leading into the former Legion stronghold were damaged beyond repair by the fighting weeks prior, twisted out of shape, and unable to close. Every so often, a Securitron patrolling the area would be seen, simply there so House could keep tabs on the remains of The Fort, and prevent any unwanted guests from setting up shop there on the off chance that in the near or distant future he might require of the base. The bodies of dead Legionnaires had been gathered up into different piles by the Securitrons, and had begun to attract flies. A gnarly sight, but none the Courier couldn't stomach, with all she'd seen in all her many, many years. 

"What a mess. You really did a number on them, didn't you?" The Courier said, beginning the trek to The Fort's summit, stepping over a fallen cross that had once been used to make an example of the Legion's enemies. The U.I. of her Pip-boy 3000 flickered for the briefest of moments, before the unmoving visage of Mr. House appeared on it. "Don't get confused. Caesar himself 'did a number' on the Legion." House said, the Courier glancing down at her arm. "Entrusting you with the platinum chip based entirely on your moxie was exactly the kind of bravado-fuelled gesture I'd have expected from him." He added, the Courier beginning to ascend the steep path towards what used to be the Legion's camp. "Caesar's Legion was a band of misguided savages beyond reproach, and nothing more. History will forget them almost as quickly as they crawled out of the woodwork." House finished, the Courier raising an eyebrow.

 

"In the Mojave, maybe. But they've made their mark. Hell, the ruins of this place alone serves as proof they were here, doesn't it?" She replied in a quiet, raspy voice. Looking down as she buttoned up her duster, the rain pattering against the wide-brimmed hat sitting atop her head. "I find it curious you'd consider a dilapidated scrap heap such as this as a 'mark', when it would only take so much as a dustpan and brush to remove it. The Great War was a mark - This is just insignificant." House shot back as the Courier stopped for a moment to look up at the charred remains of the flags hanging from the poles outside of the camp. There was a bull somewhere under all that black. The heavy gates leading to the camp on The Fort's summit blew in the whistling wind as the Courier started moving again, looking around at the carnage as she made her way in. "I just don't think people are going to forget what they did so easily." She said, some of the tents collapsed, some just barely standing, and some with dirty tire marks running over them from the odd patrolling Securitron.

"Come now. You've been around almost as long as I have, give or take a few decades. You and I have both seen the same story played out countless times. The Master's Army? The Enclave? Both tried to forcefully impose their ideals - their vision of a perfect future for mankind on the world, and both faded into obscurity when their plans were foiled. Had either of those two groups been remembered by the populus, I'd be more inclined to believe you - Only they hadn't. So tell me, what makes them any different from the Legion? Can you name even one thing?" House asked, sounding as sure of himself as always. Both examples listed by House were events she'd lived through - despite not having any hand in. Admittedly, she couldn't help but see the parallels herself. 

"The Legion still exists back East." She replied rather bluntly.  
"And it will crumble back East. It takes more vision than 'I'm going to hurt you if you don't do as I say' to make a change, you know. And you do know - That's something you and I have accomplished." House replied almost quick enough to interrupt her. She just smiled to herself, deciding to let that discussion end there, and talk about something else.

"Remind me why we're here." She said, grabbing the Riot Shotgun slung across her back, looking around the camp. "Because despite all of the rubble you undoubtedly see before you, one of Caesar's men has weaseled his way into a defensible position in my bunker - the same one the Securitron army filed out of during the fighting at Hoover Dam. Every Securitron I've sent to worm him out has been destroyed. I'd send more, but it's something of a waste of resources when one takes into consideration he's of no threat. Naturally, this is where you come in." House explained, the Courier looking at another pile of dead as he spoke, though this time she could make out a few slaves among the Legionnaires. She knew better than to mention it to House, as House simply wouldn't care. It was nothing more than collateral damage to him, and the Courier had come to share his point of view after working with him for so long.

"So you'd put me at risk to deal with something of little to no consequence? Flattering, Robert." She said, skating on thin ice in calling him by his first name.  
"I find the notion that you would be in any kind of danger in this scenario simply laughable. The notion that you yourself believe you would be in any danger even more so after all you've done." House said, prompting a raspy laugh from the Courier.  
"Was there a compliment in there somewhere?" She asked with her head tilted to the side.  
"You are by far the most capable person I've ever had in my employ. You unequivocally hold the upper hand in this situation." He said, avoiding her questioning.  
"Be still, my heart." She said, smirking as she rolled her hazy blue eyes.

"So are you sure it's Legion down there?" The Courier asked, making her way over to the weather monitoring station.  
"Of course it is." House said, speaking in a tone that implied that was a redundant question.  
"Why 'of course'?" She replied.  
"My Securitrons have been present at this camp since The Fort's sacking. Anybody with any sense would be able to deduce that whoever it is down there had to have done so amidst all the chaos, unless you mean to tell me not a single Securitron picked up some lowly transient Wastelander hiking up Fortification Hill so they could take refuge in my bunker that they somehow had prior knowledge of. Besides - I've seen him." He said, just as Courier Six opened up the door to the station.

"You've seen him?" The Courier repeated, loading the shotgun with a handful of shells from her satchel.  
"He's been mocking me through the monitor." House said, sighing as he was able to predict the Courier's response before she even said it.  
"I bet that's really getting under your skin, isn't it. Is this an ego thing?" She all but giggled, heading down the stairs.  
"A minor grievance is still cause for action, especially as I'm in a position to take action."

House quietened up now, the Courier's Pip-boy returning to its original state. She smiled, nodding in greeting at House's monitor as she passed by at the bunker's entrance. The bunker's security mechanisms were all long since destroyed, both by the Courier and the intruder, and the Courier was making an effort to be extra vigilant, as she knew full well how sneaky members of the Legion could be. She pressed the touchpad at the side of the doorframe, causing the vault door to slide open vertically, revealing a dark corridor. Though it wasn't until she reached the center of the aforementioned corridor - the long corridor that was too dark to see the other side of, that she began to feel somewhat nervous, and on edge. 

This feeling wasn't helped by the sound of that same door closing again from behind her. She turned, looking back. From the darkness emerged a familiar silhouette that she couldn't quite make out yet.

"Do my eyes deceive me? Or do I see the very same profligate who would so boldly spurn Caesar's favour standing before me?" 

It was that same chilling, unmistakable voice that she'd heard at Nipton, and then once again on The Strip. What little hair the Courier had stood on edge as she raised an eyebrow, confused as to why Vulpes was still present in the Mojave.  
"Inculta." She said simply, pointing her shotgun at him.

"Are you expecting me to grovel, Courier? Were you to strike me down now, you'd be doing me a service. I have no fear." He said with a chuckle, folding his arms. Her Pip-boy flickered for a moment. House again. "Is this some manner of teary-eyed reunion? Because if I recall correctly, and I do, I believe your mission was to--"  
"And the debaucher. It should have come as no surprise to Caesar, Courier, that you'd align yourself with a city that serves as nothing more than a monument to vice, and hedonism." Vulpes said, his voice as bitter, cold, and unfeeling as it always was.  
"Don't insult my intelligence. Though in hindsight, I must admit I wouldn't expect a savage such as yourself to realize that the 'debaucher' of which you speak is Robert Edwin House, founder of RobCo industries, and sole proprietor of the New Vegas Strip. I accomplished more in the first 30 years of my life than you or Caesar ever will in all of your ever so fleeting time on this Earth." House snarled, the Courier just electing to remain quiet for a few moments longer, to let them interact.

"Am I supposed to be impressed? I know who you are, and all of your 'accomplishments' as you call them are rooted in impurity. You serve not one single purpose, Edwin, beyond obstructing the Legion's will to pass judgement on Vegas, with your greed, and your feeble attempt at building a wretched kingdom devoted to decadence and dissolution. A fool's errand - You know as well as I do that the wrath of Caesar will only come back in full force. You're a heretic, and one day you will watch your 'empire' turn to ash, and all the sinners and miscreants burning with it, and it will be just." Vulpes growled, his voice low and gravelly. This would go back and forth for hours unless the Courier stepped in.

"Where's the Legion now? Why haven't you fled back East with the rest of them?" The Courier asked, trying to speed the conversation along. She was still so very confused.

Vulpes took a moment to think, looking down with a sigh. "...I will admit, I commend you on catching us off guard as you did, despite the cowardice that comes with using machine instead of man," Vulpes said, looking back up as he put his hands behind his back.  
"Our ace in the hole." House interjected.

"The element of surprise is more often than not the most effective tactic. You utilized it well. Once it became apparent we were outnumbered, it grew increasingly difficult to employ any kind of strategy on the battlefield the more overwhelmed we became. In the heat of the battle, I did only what was necessary for my survival."

"You ran." The Courier said.

"I was supposed to die with the rest of my confrères. But yet here I am. Cowardice is strictly forbidden under Caesar - punishable by death. I have no doubts you know of the Burned Man. Even I can't grasp it, why I didn't simply allow myself the honor of being felled in battle. I can't go back to the Legion now." Vulpes murmured, ashamed of his own cowardice.  
"Why? Everyone who could possibly have known that you fled during the battle is dead." The Courier asked with a lost expression, still confused, as House remained abnormally silent.

"That would be a disgrace to the Legion. It goes against everything I, and the Legion itself stand for. I'd sooner resign myself to existing steeped in my own ire for the remainder of my days than feign valor. Now, I have no choice but to be independent of the Legion."

"Yet you still uphold the Legion's pathetic 'everybody who isn't a puritan is despicable' rhetoric?" House asked, breaking his silence, and sounding genuinely curious.

"Don't misunderstand me. My devotion lies with the Legion - With Caesar until my dying breath. It is for this reason I can no longer serve his Legion." Vulpes said, folding his arms as he glared at the Courier. He looked down at the shotgun, and then back up at her. "I grow weary of this conversation, profligate. If you plan to kill me then do so, otherwise, I see no further reason for us to continue this interaction." Vulpes growled again, starting to walk past the Courier, further into the bunker.

"Yeah? Well... I-I'm leaving." The Courier stammered out, baffled by the interaction. "Then I bid you farewell, and I remind you both, that justice is inescapable." He said, disappearing into the dark of the corridor.

She began to head back to the entrance, shaking her head.

"Had I known that was how this was going to play out, I simply would have charged the bunker with Securitrons instead of allowing him a chance to ramble on about his misguided concept of purity and justice." House said, his disgruntled voice sounding like an audible version of an eye roll.  
"It was interesting." The Courier replied.  
"It was dull. Dreadfully so. The Legion are a mere several steps above cave-dwelling neanderthals, if that. We can discuss this further back at the Lucky 38, if you so wish, but for now you'd best hope your barbarian of an acquaintance doesn't try to contact me again, lest you make a return trip to finish him off, and actually do so this time." House said with an unimpressed tone of voice, before the Pip-boy screen returned to normal once more.

A strange turn of events. She couldn't have predicted it would turn out this way. How bizarre.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick one-off fic I wanted to get down. First time ever trying to portray House or Vulpes! Feedback appreciated!


End file.
